Here's a GIF of the most popular girls' names by state from 1960 to 2012. Watching the waves is somewhat hypnotizing. For me, I want to know why Jennifer ran from 1970 through 1984 for the total population and had all 50 states from 1973 through 1978, yet when 1985 rolls around Jessica is the total population winner and Jennifer carries a single state (IL). The only other name to carry all 50 states was Lisa in 1965.

When the change comes, it's immediate and pretty much nationwide. There's clearly a MA thesis in there somewhere and potentially a PhD dissertation (assuming it hasn't already been done).

Back in the 3 network and early cable era I'm pretty sure daytime soaps had a huge effect, because there wasn't much else for pregnant women to watch. Likewise movies (Madison from Splash, Bella from Twilight)

It would actually be more interesting to look at the top ten or twenty, since some trendy names had a run of significance without ever getting all the way to #1. Nevaeh, for example.

My family is loaded with unique names alternating with "traditional" ones. Just among my father's siblings there was a Galen and an Elva. My grandmother said that sitting around in pre-television farms/small towns there was nothing better to do than come up with ideas for names.

My mother was enamored with David McCallum from "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." when she was pregnant with me, but my father veto'd "Illya" as a name.

Man, when my daughter was born in July, 2008, there were 4 other babies whose birth/stay overlapped hers, and 3 of them were girls and all of them were named Isabella. The nurses were so glad to hear that we were not naming our child Isabella. No idea why it was so popular.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

Well, "mind dead conformists" just doesn't connote the happy self-satisfaction that most people derive from being in the accepted norms of society.For short hand, it passes as a descriptive and apt nomenclature.